


Summertime Sadness

by nishiki



Series: Thistle and Weeds [12]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Beach Holidays, Beach House, Brother Feels, Brotherly Affection, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Brothers, Day At The Beach, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Klaus is a good brother, New Abilities, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, Summer Vacation, Surprises, new powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 14:27:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18942850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nishiki/pseuds/nishiki
Summary: The Umbrella Academy goes on a trip to the beach and while Ben enjoys seeing his siblings having fun together at the beach, he feels lost. He doesn't know yet, that Klaus has a surprise left up his sleeve.----------Can be read as stand-alone





	Summertime Sadness

**August 2020**

 

Ben Hargreeves was frustrated. This was by no means a new development. Being frustrated was not necessarily his modus operandi, however, haunting his brother Klaus for almost fourteen years straight, naturally came with a bit of frustration on his part. For at least thirteen out of those fourteen years, Ben had been forced to take a backseat to the shitshow that was his brother Klaus’ day to day life. He had been privy to all the bad decisions his brother had made regularly. The men, the drugs, the alcohol, the crimes, his stay in prison and all the different Johns and Toms that had left him beaten up and bloody and with no money after they had gotten what they wanted. 

He had been there through it all. Forced to watch for the most part or to pick up the pieces of his brother in the aftermath. 

All of this had been supposed to change, though, after Klaus had gotten clean and after they accidentally stopped the apocalypse. And it did change. Klaus had gotten better with his powers. He had started to finally get a grip on everything. Only a few months ago, in January, Klaus had discovered that he could actually levitate - even though he had broken his leg in the process of this discovery. He hadn't yet quite figured everything out about this power but he was trying his best. Not to mention Klaus’ brush with death in April. 

None of these experiences had thrown Klaus off, though. 

As Ben sat in the back of Luther’s minivan, however, he was sizzling with frustration as he watched Klaus doze against the window right next to Allison, his nose pressed into the glass while Luther forced the car over serpentine roads out of the city and into the vast freedom of the coastal area surrounding their hometown. These days, his brother Klaus was outright avoiding him. 

It had started three weeks ago. Suddenly, his brother had begun to disappear from sight all the time. It was odd since Ben was always able to find his brother usually. They were tethered to each other, tied together by some sort of invisible bond. Suddenly, Ben hadn't been able to find him for hours on end during the day and when he found Klaus at last, he had been dismissive and exhausted to the point where he would just fall asleep in the living room. No matter how often Ben would ask him, no matter how much he would press his brother, Klaus wouldn't say what was going on. 

He couldn't deny that it hurt a little to know that his brother was keeping secrets from him.  Klaus wasn't meant to keep secrets from him. Klaus, even after getting closer to Diego these past months, was supposed to tell him everything and not keep shit from him. They had been attached at the hip for thirteen years and now that? Something was wrong and he didn't like it. 

There even was that part of him that was afraid that Klaus had relapsed again. Ever since Klaus had started to hide from him because there was no other way to explain what he was doing. He found excuses on why he wouldn't make Ben corporal or materialize him anymore. He claimed that he was too tired but Ben was afraid that Klaus couldn't do it anymore. And wouldn't it be so much of a stretch to consider that his brother might have relapsed? This was Klaus, after all. 

He had seen so many times how his brother had stumbled down this road but he had been certain that this time it would stick and that Diego would be able to help Klaus in this regard. If anyone could do this it was Diego. 

Diego, on the other hand, seemed largely unbothered by Klaus’ weird behavior. In fact, more often than not, Number Two disappeared at the same time as Four would sometimes. 

Well … They had been growing closer over the past year ever since that failed apocalypse. Diego had largely been responsible for Klaus’ good rehabilitation and for the belief his wayward brother finally found in himself, the confidence Klaus had been able to build in his own abilities. There was no denying of how close those two became ever since all of that went down and even more so after Klaus had died and came back to life. 

Maybe it wouldn't be so much of a stretch to think that there was something more going on between those two these days. After all, Luther and Allison were a thing as well, right? And had Five never traveled through time and had grown up with them, Ben was positive that he and Vanya would have ended up together. 

Diego and Klaus … it seemed inevitable. It would explain Klaus’ alleged tiredness all the time after he had vanished and why he would explicitly hide from Ben. And knowing Diego … Well, Number Two wouldn't be too eager to just blurt out their little secret, right? He would want to move things slow and figure everything out before announcing anything to the rest of their family. A relationship such as this could break a family if the relationship would end in heartbreak or anger. Better safe than sorry.

Still, if this was the big secret … Ben was even more hurt if Klaus wouldn't have told him at least. After everything they've gone through together. Perhaps, Ben thought, Klaus was afraid that Ben wouldn't understand, that Ben would judge them and not approve of their relationship. Thinking of it … Did he approve? He couldn't quite tell. Klaus, in his mind, wasn't stable enough for a relationship of that magnitude. 

He didn't believe that Klaus understood how serious a relationship like this truly was. Then again, he didn't believe that Luther and Allison understood how serious a relationship like theirs really was. 

Watching how Klaus was dozing against the window didn't give him the answers he wanted, though. So, instead, as he was hovering between his siblings in the back, he directed his gaze at the front where Diego was navigating and Luther driving without much bickering for once. He could already see the coast they were headed to. Going on vacation had seemed like a good idea, though Ben was almost a bit sad that he wouldn't be able to do anything at the beach. 

He was happy for the rest of them, though. It seemed right for them as a family to go on a nice beach vacation for a few days and to do what they could never do as kids. He just wished he could share this with them properly.

The original idea, as far as Ben recalled it, came from Klaus - which shouldn't be a surprise, really. A few weeks ago, Klaus had brought up the topic of a family vacation and though, at first, their siblings hadn't been so excited about it, they had warmed up to it pretty quickly. 

Allison had organized that beach house for them, secluded from the rest of the beach so that the academy could enjoy a little bit of privacy. Of course, she had had Luther in mind doing so. It couldn't be easy for the big guy to accept his body the way it was now. This way, Luther could at least enjoy himself without being stared at by hundreds of strangers at the beach. They reached the house on the small hill overlooking the beach an hour after Klaus had fallen asleep against the window and while everyone scrambled to get out, it became Diego’s job to actually wake up the sleeping Seancé. Not that this would be new by any means. Diego had always been the unofficial Klaus-handler because he seemed to be the only person Klaus would actually listen to.

Ben could only watch from outside the car, how Diego shook Klaus awake gently and helped him then to untangle his limbs and get out of the car. Klaus was still drowsy as he got out of the vehicle and followed their siblings to the beach house. It was not exactly huge and only provided two double bedrooms and two single rooms. The decision of who would bunk together had been swift. Perhaps Diego's readiness to share a bed with Klaus should fuel his suspicions. Then again that was just Klaus and Diego, right? They were two peas in a pot. Always had been.

He felt a little left out, to be honest. That, of course, was nothing new either. He was dead after all. It was hard to include someone who was dead. All this had changed a little since they knew that he was still there, naturally. They talked to him even if they could not always see him. He missed being a proper part of the team, though. Maybe he was even a little angry at his brother that he was not able to conjure him properly these days. He had to swallow these feelings, however, after all, it was not Klaus’ responsibility to conjure him all the time and allow Ben to drain all his energy. Maybe he should give Klaus a break. He deserved a break after all this turmoil lately.

And maybe he deserved to be happy with Diego. That was what Ben later thought as he watched them at the beach. Watching his siblings at the beach having fun and being reduced to nothing more than a bodiless and invisible specter came with a certain sense of sadness, maybe even nostalgia. He thought that this was how Vanya must have felt like during their shared childhood. Always the silent observer, her senses and feelings dulled to a bare minimum by the drugs their father had forced upon her. Never part of it, even outside of their endless training drills. 

Maybe it was just and right that it was now Ben’s turn to experience these things while Vanya was finally part of this family. And Ben gladly took her place if it meant Vanya had a reason to actually smile.

As children, Ben had always been close to Vanya and Five - Well, in all honesty, during his childhood, Ben had always been close to every one of his six siblings with him and Klaus sharing a rather special bond. Klaus, during one of his drug-induced self-destructive rampages, had once remarked that it was unfair to him that everyone seemed to love Ben so much while he and Vanya never quite seemed to be a part of the group. 

While Vanya had been disregarded and deemed not worthy to be part of their little ragtag group of wannabe superheroes, Klaus had simply been too loud, too quirky, too weird,  _ too much _ . He had been a nuisance to Luther, Allison, and Five. He had been annoying, a bother, something they didn't want to deal with. Diego and Ben had always been the only ones able to deal with Number Four and his Klaus-ness. He had often seen himself as Klaus’ protector, much like Diego too. Unlike Diego, however, he had failed in many regards and a great many times as well. 

The closeness between those two became especially clear to Ben now as he watched from his spot on one of the seats next to Allie. Klaus had put a black towel on one of the deck-chairs to mark it as Ben’s so that no one would accidentally sit on him. Klaus was thoughtful like this. Such a saint. Meanwhile, Allison was sunbathing, Luther was playing Boccia with Five and Vanya, and Klaus and Diego were currently in the water and playing in the waves that were softly crashing against the shoreline.

There was an old, long-established rule that no one spoke of to never let Klaus alone in the water after had almost drowned once as a kid. Their father had never been big on protecting his kids. He had been a follower of Darwin’s theories and of the strong opinion that those who weren’t able to adapt didn't deserve help to save them from perishing. And since their father hadn't been too protective of them, they as a team of siblings had taken over that role. Klaus had always been a terrible swimmer. It was as if his body wanted to be dragged down to the bottom of the sea or the pool in the academy. Diego, on the other hand, was in his element whenever he was submerged in water. There was a reason why he was called The Kraken, after all. 

Poor Diego didn't get much of a chance to swim peacefully and enjoy the water, though. Not with Klaus around attacking him and trying to dunk the much stronger man. It was Klaus’ luck though that he was truly the only one Diego would allow such behavior from as he just took the assaults with patience - until he had enough and proceeded to dunk Klaus instead. It was true that Diego had always had a soft spot for Klaus but even Diego had his limits. 

Klaus soon emerged from the water sputtering and coughing but seemingly happy as he jumped on Diego’s back next. Diego allowed it with a soft roll of his eyes and a crooked and clearly amused grin as he began wading back to the shore with Klaus still on his back as if he would weigh nothing at all. He couldn't quite deny the sting he felt at this display of affection. Why Klaus had never talked to him about his new relationship to Diego, was beyond him but it hurt.

»Benny! Oh, Benny boy!« Klaus sing-sang as he finally jumped off of Diego and sashayed over to where Ben was sitting under the huge parasol on his black towel. »Put on your prettiest bathing suit, the water is perfect, Baby!« 

»I’m good.« Ben replied with a grin, even though it felt forced even to himself. 

»No, no, no! You’re not, Bentacles!« Klaus was merciless as he approached him and grabbed, as his hand started to glow in that ghostly blue light, Ben’s hands. By now, Ben had grown accustomed to the sensation of becoming solid. 

Never solid enough, though, to really feel something. His sense of feeling was dull for the most part, only a husk, a faint echo of how it used to be. He could barely feel the warmth of Klaus’ hands usually if they would touch. It was an odd state to be in. Mostly, he felt like a piece of furniture for a lack of a better comparison. He had a body, yes, and he could interact with things but it was like he was piloting some sort of robot. He could interact but not really experience anything. He didn't really possess a body either. After all, his body was rotting in the ground, right?

The first thing Ben noticed was how cold and wet Klaus’ hands were as his brother pulled him to his feet. That was new. New was also that he could feel the wind on his face all of the sudden. Huh. The wind ruffled his hair even. 

Suddenly, Ben became very aware of how the rest of his siblings were looking at him. Luther, Vanya, and Five had paused in their Boccia game and Allison had lowered her sunglasses to look at him while Diego had walked over to the desk chairs closely behind Klaus, his face split apart by a wide grin. He furrowed his brows at that but before he could really do anything, Diego suddenly bridged the distance between them and picked him up to throw him over his shoulder as if it meant nothing just like when they were children. 

Klaus let a shrill giggle escape his lips as Diego began jogging back to the shore as if Ben would weigh nothing more than air. Well, he was dead, after all. Dead and still terribly confused as Diego rushed back to the water only to suddenly dump Ben into the ocean without a warning.

He shouldn't be able to feel much of the water. Most certainly, he shouldn't be able to get drenched. Yet, Ben went under the water like a stone. He felt the salt burn in his open eyes, felt the water bite into his nostrils and find its way into his mouth - courtesy of the startled gasp he had allowed to slip out.

The weirdest thing about it all was the sole fact that he was able to feel all of it. He felt the water on his skin and in his hair. He felt the wind bite sharply into his face as he resurfaced and how it tousled his hair. He felt the burn in his eyes. He felt it all. Even the heaviness of his soaked clothes. They were not meant to be soaking wet. As if he was alive. As if he had a body. Suddenly, his solid form was more than a hollow echo of the person he once was.

As he sputtered out water and shook his wet hair out of his eyes, he saw Klaus’ wide grin as he stood in the shallow waters.

»I told you to put on your bathing suit!« Klaus grinned and Diego clasped his shoulder from behind him. It was a creeping sensation as Ben started to realize that that was what Klaus had been working on these past weeks. At least that was the message Klaus’ satisfied and proud smile delivered. 

It didn't take long for the rest of his siblings to join them in the water and for the first time since his death, Ben felt like a part of the group again. Almost alive. Almost as if he had never died in the first place. 

※※※※※※※

Diego still talked in his sleep. This was not new by any means, of course. He had always talked in his sleep but that he still did it surprised Ben a little. Originally, he hadn't wanted to enter the room of Klaus and Diego, afraid of what he might find but as he roamed the silent house and didn't hear suspicious sounds coming from behind their door he slipped inside regardless. 

He found Diego lying flat on his stomach, his right arm dangling from the bed, the left side of his face pressed into the pillow that he held protectively in his left arm. The mumbling that escaped him was silent and slurred but Ben still heard it. Something about Luther being a dick. Nothing new there either. He was, thankfully, dressed in a pair of black sweatpants but his blanket had been annexed by Klaus at some point. Whether he had stolen it from Diego in his sleep or if Diego had given it over willingly due to the heat of the summer night, Ben couldn't determine. 

The Seancé was visibly exhausted the way he was curled in on himself on his side with both blankets wrapped around his body in a protective cocoon of warmth. This day had taken much out of Klaus. During dinner, he had hardly been able to hold his fork. Luther had cut his steak for him even. He had been deadly tired and fallen asleep the moment they had all gathered in the living room for drinks. While their siblings had enjoyed a few bottles of wine and beer, Klaus had slept on Luther’s shoulder until Diego had woken him up and brought him upstairs and to bed. 

The way his brothers laid side by side in that queen-sized bed didn't exactly scream lovers at Ben but that was probably just because Klaus was so exhausted and Diego a gentleman. During the day, Ben hadn't had much time to talk to his brother about what he had achieved today. Klaus had kept it up the entire day and Ben had been able to enjoy the world around him for the first time in almost fourteen years. 

He had felt the sun on his skin after he had indeed changed into a pair of black swimming trunks that Klaus had brought with them. He had even been able to eat and drink something! Only when Klaus had started to sway dangerously on his feet as they had been nearing dinner time, he had allowed Ben to become a ghost again - and only because Vanya had urged him to rest. 

»Hey, Benjamin.« Klaus’ voice was too soft and quiet as he spoke slowly and Ben wasn’t even that surprised to find his eyes open as he walked around the bed. He smiled softly at his brother and sat down on the edge of his side of the bed. The sound of the waves crashing against the shoreline nearby came through the open windows. A soothing little lullaby. 

»You should be sleeping.« Ben scolded quietly although Diego wouldn't be able to hear him even if he would be awake. 

»I can sleep when I’m dead.« Klaus replied with a mocking little wave of his goodbye hand. »Hey, Benny … Would you be cool with dressing up as a ghost for Halloween or would that be insensitive or weird or something? Asking for a friend.« 

He rolled his eyes with a chuckle passing through his lips at that. »Thank you, Klaus.« His own voice was nothing more than a whisper as he looked at him again. 

Klaus looked bone-tired. His face seemed gaunt and grey in the darkness of the room that was barely broken by the bit of moonlight streaming in through the windows opposite of his side of the bed. He looked small under his mountain of blankets and was probably cold despite the heat of the summer that caused Diego to forgo his blanket altogether. He couldn't help but feel slightly guilty for having drained his brother of so much energy throughout the day.

»For what?« Of course, he would ask that. 

»You know for what you, Dingus.« Ben chuckled. »For what you did for me today. I still don't know how you did it. But I guess … It has something to do with how you kept hiding from me for the last three weeks?«

»Oh … That.« Klaus hummed and blinked slowly. He seemed tired enough to just fall asleep any second now. »Yeah … Sorry about that. I know that it was a dick move but I wanted to surprise you. I found a few nice ghosts in the attic, you see? They helped me train - and Diego did too. It wasn’t easy though because I needed to focus on keeping myself hidden from you as well. That was kinda draining but guess who learned how to cloak themselves from ghosts now!«

His smile turned a little sad as he realized that Klaus’ success in discovering this ability came with the cost of their shared time together. Of course, that was childish. Klaus had had a valid reason to keep Ben away and still it left a sour taste in his mouth. Just a little. Just a tiny bit. »That's great.« Ben opted for those words instead of the answer that was circling over and over in his head. They never had secrets from one another. »Now you don't need to be afraid of them all the time, right?«

»Right.« Klaus sighed tiredly. »But don't worry, I’m not gonna hide from you anymore. Never again, Benny. I’m so glad it worked, though. I felt so guilty for keeping this from you and acting like a jerk all the time.«

Klaus, always the concerned one. Ben had always been everyone's favorite. He knew this. All his siblings had always loved him dearly and he had loved them all dearly back. Luther had often said in the past that he thought that Ben was the best of them, that Ben was the most compassionate and kind and patient. It had taken their siblings for the world to almost end, Klaus being kidnapped and tortured and then killed to realize how much goodness was hidden behind the clown facade of their ex-junkie brother. Klaus had always been so kind and loving to all of them. He had always been loud and sometimes a bit much to handle, yes, but he had always been kind and gentle and forgiving and patient and caring. Never selfish, never cruel. Just lost. So, so lost. 

»Why did you want to do this anyway?« 

Klaus hesitated only for a second, about as long as it took him to process the question before he could think of the proper response. »I wanted to give something back.« He said with a small shrug of his narrow shoulders. »I … You were there. The last fourteen years. You were there and looked after me, right? You saw all the shit I did and all the shit that was done to me. You helped me, protected me, kept me sane - well, almost. I just wanted to say thank you, Ben.«

If he would be able to cry, he might have done so. Even as a ghost, he felt choked up by those words. »Moron.« He whispered into the silence of the room. This was probably all that was needed to be said in this regard. What more could he tell him than this? 

He tried to envision how Klaus had been practicing this new skill with the ghosts in the attic, giving them corporal forms until he had perfected this new ability. How many times had he passed out just from the sheer energy that was being drained from him? Was this why he had needed Diego with him all the time? To help him? He dragged a hand over his face. »I feel real stupid now, you know?«

»Why?« Klaus smirked.

»Well, I thought … You and Diego…«

Klaus furrowed his brows in total confusion before something finally seemed to dawn on him and he broke out in giggles. »What?« He laughed, uncaring that Diego was sleeping next to him. »You thought  _ what _ ?«

»Well, excuse me!« Ben echoed his laughter then as the ridiculousness of it all started to fully seep in. For weeks he had tried to figure out the mystery surrounding the absence of two of his brothers and the only possible explanation for him had been that they were probably fucking. He hadn't even stopped to consider that something else entirely might be going on. »You were hiding from me with Diego! What was I supposed to think? He’s clearly your type!«

As Klaus rolled laughing onto his back, Ben felt happier than he had in a decade, perhaps even happier than he had felt the entire day today. Just seeing Klaus laugh so freely and without restraint about Ben’s ridiculous assumptions was oddly liberating and good. He was proud of his brother too. Klaus had been willing to work hard on himself and all of that just for him. Just because he wanted to say thank you for something he didn't need to thank Ben for, for something that should have been a given from the start.

Neither one of them took great interest in the fact that Klaus’ laughter and his jerky movement on the bed caused Diego to wake up with a startled grunt. Their brother was known to immediately jump into an aggressive stance when he would be startled from his sleep and this was no exception as he turned on his side in a second and looked around in alarm, pushing his body up just enough to take in the scene.

»What the hell, Man?« He then groaned as he realized that Klaus’ laughter had shaken him awake and not some possible intruder who wanted to kill them all. »Go back to sleep, Idiot!« 

Instead of doing as Diego said, however, Klaus instead just lunged at him and took their brother completely by surprise with this sudden assault on him. Ben was almost a little afraid that Klaus would tell Diego about his suspicions about them. He didn't, in the end, just pressed a very audible smooch to Diego’s cheek. 

It was their little secret. Just theirs. 

Ben and Klaus had never withheld secrets from each other. They had always shared everything since Ben’s death and had known everything about the other one. Ben had been there when Klaus went first to prison. He had been there when Klaus had been beaten by some random John every goddamn time, unable to help him, unable to protect him, unable to beat the crap out of Klaus’ attacker. 

He had been there when Klaus had overdosed again and again and again, repeating the same vicious cycle over and over. He had been there when Klaus had woken up after a party, naked and freezing in some stranger’s bedroom not knowing how he got there or what had happened while Ben had been unable to do anything while his brother had been knocked out by drugs or alcohol or roofies. He had been there all the times Klaus had been hungry and afraid or hurt or struggling or freezing or sobbing on the bottom of some motel shower after one of his customers had left him bleeding and broken.

However, while they had never had any secrets from each other, they had always had plenty of secrets that they both had withheld from their other siblings. 

This was only one more of those and Ben couldn't be happier about it.

 


End file.
